FICS Scholarly Articles
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Faculty and staff research papers from the Faculty of Information and Communication Studies.
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ItemCourse Module Archive - MMS 150: User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX) Design (3rd Trimester, AY 2022-2023)( 2023)This archive contains the instructional materials for MMS 150: User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX) Design, a core course under the Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Studies (BAMS) program at the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU). Developed and refined by Diego Maranan, this version of the course package was implemented during the 3rd Trimester of Academic Year 2022-2023. While the course has been previously offered, this iteration represents a significant refinement of earlier versions and is submitted for formal consideration. MMS 150 introduces students to the foundational principles, tools, and collaborative practices of UI/UX design. Framed around the 5-phase Design Thinking model, the course guides learners through activities in user research, problem definition, ideation, prototyping, and usability testing. Emphasis is placed on ethical design, user empathy, and critical engagement with design processes across multiple platforms. Students work in teams to create functional low- and high-fidelity prototypes that address real-world needs and reflect iterative design thinking. Modules were delivered asynchronously through UPOU's Moodle-based learning management system, MyPortal. Students engaged with interactive activities, online workshops, discussion forums, and a peer-evaluated final project. The course culminated in a public-facing presentation and design critique session. This PDF archive includes: 1. A copy of the full authored course package; 2. A snapshot of the LMS course site (teacher view) showing how the content and activities were structured and implemented.
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ItemCourse Module Archive: MMS 198: Wearable Futures Hackathon (1st Trimester, AY 2022-2023)( 2022)This archive contains the instructional materials for MMS 198: Wearable Futures Hackathon, a special topics course offered as part of the Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Studies (BAMS) program at the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU). Developed and facilitated by Diego Maranan, the course was conducted during the 1st Trimester of Academic Year 2022–2023. Structured as an online speculative design and prototyping lab, the course invited students to imagine, design, and prototype wearable technologies situated in multiple possible futures. Using the BBC micro:bit and engaging in participatory design workshops, students explored critical fashion, physical computing, embodied interaction, and futures literacy. Each week built on speculative methods to deepen students' engagement with technological, social, and ecological challenges across different time horizons. Modules were delivered asynchronously via a web-based platform and included embedded video, interactive tutorials, and collaborative reflections. Live workshops with international facilitators from the SEADS collective and the Emerging Futurists Residency complemented the learning experience. For the best experience, access the full interactive site here: https://url.upou.edu.ph/WearableFuturesCourseModules This PDF archive includes: A static version of the complete web-based course package; Embedded artifacts, links, and activities from the original asynchronous design.
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ItemExploring the Potential of a Ticketing-Based Student Support System for Open and Distance e-Learning Institutions(International Journal on Open and Distance e-Learning, 2020)Quality assurance in higher education can be examined in multiple dimensions, one being effective student support. It is arguably one of the most important aspects of an educational institution. This paper argues for the potential benefits of a ticketing-based system as part of an open and distance e-learning (ODeL) institution’s quality assurance initiatives in student support. In order to determine the ticketing-based system’s potential benefits, various educational ticketing-based support systems are reviewed. Aside from document reviews, interviews with the program chair, students, and support staff were also conducted as a way to identify the primary student support challenges in ODeL. Some of the issues that arose had to do with personalized support and interaction; response times; consistent and accurate solutions; clearly defined academic processes and policies; record keeping; the bulk of queries; and information lost during staff turnover. Interview data also revealed a set of criteria used to qualify excellent student support services both from an institutional and student perspective. Lastly, ODeL student support challenges that can be addressed by a ticketing-based system were assessed by analyzing the experiences of students, support staff, and faculty.
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ItemDesigning for One's Own: Towards Technology Design Education for Home and Family Care( 2024-04-24)Participatory design is a well-known methodology that involves end-users in the design process to create products and services that better meet their needs [1]. However, this approach is often applied to public or shared spaces rather than (one’s own) personal or family spaces. Even in family-centered design practices, designers’ attention are on the families of others, not their own [2], [3]. In this presentation, I describe the early stages of development of an educational approach as part of art and design research education, where students intentionally collaborate with their own family members, relatives, and friends as research participants and co-designers, and not merely for convenience. The approach draws inspiration from Hiroshi Ishii's "Weather Forecast Bottle," a tangible interface he developed specifically for his mother in the early 2000s [4], and has since fundamentally contributed to the field of tangible and embodied interface research [5]. The presentation will also discuss artistic and design projects I have undertaken with the intent to develop technologies and design propositions that benefit and provide care for my own family [6]. The framework borrows approaches from design fiction [3], [7], somatic practices [8], user experience and human-computer interaction (HCI) research [9], and visual and performance arts, and could be used to apply digital and frontier technologies such as wearable technology, IoT, and artificial intelligence in developing interventions for facilitating care within one’s home and family. I suggest that such an approach contributes to design education even as it addresses the need to care for one's own loved ones through targeted and context-appropriate applications of conventional participatory design and family-centered design. [1] C. Ten Holter, “Participatory design: lessons and directions for responsible research and innovation,” J. Responsible Innov., vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 275–290, May 2022, doi: 10.1080/23299460.2022.2041801. [2] K. Cheong and A. Mitchell, “Kwento: Using a Participatory Approach to Design a Family Storytelling Application for Domestic Helpers,” Lect. Notes Comput. Sci., pp. 493–500, 2015. [3] L. V. Nägele, M. Ryöppy, and D. Wilde, “PDFi: participatory design fiction with vulnerable users,” in Proceedings of the 10th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, in NordiCHI ’18. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, Sep. 2018, pp. 819–831. doi: 10.1145/3240167.3240272. [4] H. Ishii, “Bottles: A transparent interface as a tribute to Mark Weiser,” IEICE Trans. Inf. Syst., vol. E87D, pp. 1299–1311, Jun. 2004. [5] B. Ullmer, O. Shaer, A. Mazalek, and C. Hummels, Weaving Fire into Form: Aspirations for Tangible and Embodied Interaction, 1st ed. New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2022. doi: 10.1145/3544564. [6] D. S. Maranan, J. Grant, J. Matthias, M. Phillips, and S. L. Denham, “Haplós: Vibrotactile Somaesthetic Technology for Body Awareness,” in Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, in TEI ’20. Sydney NSW, Australia: Association for Computing Machinery, Feb. 2020, pp. 539–543. doi: 10.1145/3374920.3374984. [7] D. Oogjes, W. Odom, and P. Fung, “Designing for an other Home: Expanding and Speculating on Different Forms of Domestic Life,” in Proceedings of the 2018 Designing Interactive Systems Conference, in DIS ’18. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, Jun. 2018, pp. 313–326. doi: 10.1145/3196709.3196810. [8] R. Berland, E. Marques-Sule, J. L. Marín-Mateo, N. Moreno-Segura, A. López-Ridaura, and T. Sentandreu-Mañó, “Effects of the Feldenkrais Method as a Physiotherapy Tool: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials,” Int. J. Environ. Res. Public. Health, vol. 19, no. 21, p. 13734, Oct. 2022, doi: 10.3390/ijerph192113734. [9] T. Almeida, R. Comber, and M. Balaam, “HCI and Intimate Care as an Agenda for Change in Women’s Health,” in Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, San Jose California USA: ACM, May 2016, pp. 2599–2611. doi: 10.1145/2858036.2858187.
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ItemThe Wearable Futures Hackathon: Futures thinking, speculative design and wearable technologies in the Global South( 2024-06)The Wearable Futures Hackathon was a 12-week long online/offline interdisciplinary course developed for undergraduate students of an open university. The program focuses on wearable technology and culminates in an exhibition of the participants’ creative prototypes. To the best of our knowledge, the course pioneers artistic practice and exploration on speculative design and futures thinking through wearable technology within the national and regional context. In this pictorial essay, we elaborate on each of the weeks’ activities and the results of the program.